Systems and methods for smart token allocation scheme

ABSTRACT

During token and PAN provisioning, instead of just having one token per one PAN for a single use case (PAN), between 1 and N tokens per a single PAN are provisioned. During provisioning a decision engine will supply additional details that are applied to each token. This additional information is stored in a token virtual vault that houses the mapping between PAN and token. Then, during a transaction, the decision engine chooses which token to give to the merchant to process business as usual. When the token comes into the network, additional information associated with that individual token may be identified. This information may be conveyed to a transaction account Issuer in substantially real time on and/or appended to the transactional message.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to secure transactions, andmore particularly, to providing a member of a transaction (e.g., amerchant) a token rather than a primary account number.

BACKGROUND

Tokenization, when applied to data security, is the process ofsubstituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent,referred to as a token that has no extrinsic or exploitable meaning orvalue. The token is a reference (i.e. identifier) that maps back to thesensitive data through a tokenization system. The mapping from originaldata to a token uses methods which render tokens infeasible to reversein the absence of the tokenization system, for example using tokenscreated from random numbers. The tokenization system must be secured andvalidated using security best practices applicable to sensitive dataprotection, secure storage, audit, authentication and authorization. Thetokenization system provides data processing applications with theauthority and interfaces to request tokens, or detokenize back tosensitive data.

SUMMARY

According to various embodiments, the method includes receiving aselection of a transaction account code associated with a transactioninstrument. A plurality of tokens per received single primary accountnumber may be provisioned. Each token of the plurality of tokens isassociated in a virtual vault according to a specific method ofauthentication to be used with a token. The encoded plurality of tokensmay be transmitted to an e-wallet application for use.

According to various embodiments, the method may include encoding theplurality of tokens. The method of authentication includes at least oneof a one-time code, a 3-D Secure system, or an Issuer AuthenticationAPI. The method of authentication includes at least one of a fingerprint, a biometric, or a retinal scan. Processing a transactionincluding the token is also disclosed. The method may include shiftingliability for fraud from the merchant to the issuer based on use of themethods described herein. The e-wallet application may store theplurality of tokens for use based on the method of authenticationavailable to a transaction. An audit may be performed where the type ofauthentication utilized in a transaction may be known from inspection ofat least one of the vault or the e-wallet and/or vault or the e-walletrecords.

The forgoing features and elements may be combined in variouscombinations without exclusivity, unless expressly indicated hereinotherwise. These features and elements as well as the operation of thedisclosed embodiments will become more apparent in light of thefollowing description and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a tokenprovisioning process; and

FIG. 2 illustrates, in accordance with various embodiments, a tokenauthorization process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments byway of illustration and their best mode. While these exemplaryembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understood thatother embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution,” “transactionaccount issuer” and “payment processor” may include any person, entity,software and/or hardware that offers transaction account services.Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” the financialinstitution may represent any type of bank, lender or other type ofaccount issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument,” or “transaction account product” may be usedinterchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument. As usedherein, an account code may or may not be associated with a physicalfinancial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to a “buyer,” “participant”, “consumer,” and“user” may include any person, entity, software and/or hardware thatreceives items in exchange for consideration (e.g. financial payment).For example, a buyer may purchase, lease, rent, barter or otherwiseobtain items from a supplier and pay the supplier using a transactionaccount.

Phrases or terms similar to a “processor” (such as a payment processor)or “transaction account issuer” may include a company (e.g., a thirdparty) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions formerchant banks Processors may be broken down into two types: front-endand back-end. Front-end processors have connections to varioustransaction accounts and supply authorization and settlement services tothe merchant banks' merchants. Back-end processors accept settlementsfrom front-end processors and, via The Federal Reserve Bank, move moneyfrom an issuing bank to the merchant bank. In an operation that willusually take a few seconds, the payment processor will both check thedetails received by forwarding the details to the respective account'sissuing bank or card association for verification, and may carry out aseries of anti-fraud measures against the transaction. Additionalparameters, including the account's country of issue and its previouspayment history, may be used to gauge the probability of the transactionbeing approved. In response to the payment processor receivingconfirmation that the transaction account details have been verified,the information may be relayed back to the merchant, who will thencomplete the payment transaction. In response to the verification beingdenied, the payment processor relays the information to the merchant,who may then decline the transaction.

As used herein, “transmit” may include sending electronic data from onesystem component to another over a network connection. Additionally, asused herein, “data” may include encompassing information such ascommands, queries, files, data for storage, and the like in digital orany other form.

Phrases or terms similar to “transaction account” may include anyaccount that may be used to facilitate a financial transaction. A“transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described herein).The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, and telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, aphysical embodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as afinancial instrument.

Tokenization (and its processes) are industry defined by the EMVCoorganization. Building an alternate payments ecosystem may include anumber of entities working together in order to deliver near fieldcommunication (NFC) or other technology based payment services to endusers. One of the challenges is the interoperability between theplayers. To resolve this challenge, the role of a trusted servicemanager (TSM) is proposed to establish a technical link between mobilenetwork operators (MNO) and providers of services, so that theseentities can work together. Tokenization can play a role in mediatingsuch services. The basis of tokenization is that a “token” is given to amerchant in place of a Primary Account Number (PAN) essentially becomingsurrogate PANs. The smart token process described herein deliverssignificantly more transactional information to a Network and/or Issuerduring and/or after a transaction.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and merchant through any suitable communication means, such as,for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, public Internet,a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS) device,personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etc.), onlinecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications, and/orthe like.

An “account”, “account code”, or “account number”, as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system (e.g., one or more of anauthorization/access code, personal identification number (PIN),Internet code, other identification code, and/or the like). The accountnumber may optionally be located on or associated with a rewards card,charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card or an associated account. The systemmay include or interface with any of the foregoing cards or devices, QRcodes, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication, or a transponder and RFIDreader in RF communication with the transponder (which may include afob). Typical devices may include, for example, a key ring, tag, card,cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable of being presented forinterrogation.

Moreover, the system, computing unit or device discussed herein mayinclude a “pervasive computing device,” which may include atraditionally non-computerized device that is embedded with a computingunit. Examples can include watches, Internet enabled kitchen appliances,restaurant tables embedded with RF readers, wallets or purses withimbedded transponders, etc.

The account code may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A customer account code may be, for example, asixteen-digit transaction account code, although each transactionaccount provider has its own numbering system, such as the fifteen-digitnumbering system used by American Express. Each company's transactionaccount codes comply with that company's standardized format such thatthe company using a fifteen-digit format will generally use three-spacedsets of numbers, as represented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. Thefirst five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes andidentify the issuing bank, card type, etc. In this example, the last(fifteenth) digit is used as a sum check for the fifteen digit number.The intermediary eight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identifythe customer. A merchant account code may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identify a merchant for purposes of cardacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withthe present disclosure, may be completed in a format recognizable by amerchant system or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example,the information may be transmitted from a contactless (e.g., an RFIDdevice) to a contactless (e.g., RFID) reader or from the contactlessreader to the merchant system in a variety of formats, e.g., magneticstripe or multi-track magnetic stripe format.

As used herein, an http session may comprise an impermanent interactivecommunication exchange between a first web-client (as described herein)and a second web-client and/or between a front-end system, such as aweb-client (e.g., a mobile device or personal computer) and a backendsystem (e.g., a transaction account issuer server or server system).

A web-client may include any device (e.g., personal computingdevice/mobile communication device) which communicates via any network.A web-client may be associated with and/or used by a consumer, amerchant, or both. A web-client may comprise a variety of browsingsoftware or browser applications (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer,Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or any other of the myriadsoftware packages available for browsing the internet). Such browserapplications may comprise Internet browsing software installed within acomputing unit or a system to conduct online transactions and/orcommunications. These computing units or systems may take the form of acomputer or processor, or a set of computers/processors, although othertypes of computing units or systems may be used, including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, cellularphones, smart phones (e.g., iPhone®, BlackBerry®, Droid®, etc.) set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as iPads, iMACs, and MacBooks,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, or any other device capable of receiving data over anetwork 104.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a web-client may include anoperating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/CE/Mobile, OS2, UNIX,Linux, Solaris, MacOS, PalmOS, etc.) as well as various conventionalsupport software and drivers typically associated with computers. Aweb-client may implement security protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A web-client may implement oneor more application layer protocols, including, for example, http,https, ftp, and sftp. Transactions originating at a web client may passthrough a firewall (not shown; see below) in order to preventunauthorized access from users of other networks.

A network may comprise any electronic communications system or methodwhich incorporates software and/or hardware components. Communicationmay be accomplished through any suitable communication channels, suchas, for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet,Internet, point of interaction device (point of sale device, personaldigital assistant, smart phone, cellular phone (e.g., iPhone®, PalmPilot®, Blackberry®), kiosk, etc.), online communications, satellitecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications,transponder communications, local area network (LAN), wide area network(WAN), virtual private network (VPN), networked or linked devices,keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication or data inputmodality. Moreover, although a network 104 may be described herein asbeing implemented with TCP/IP communications protocols, the network 104may also be implemented using IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, anytunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or any number of existing orfuture protocols. If the network 106 is in the nature of a publicnetwork, such as the Internet, it may be advantageous to presume thenetwork 104 to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specificinformation related to the protocols, standards, and applicationsoftware utilized in connection with the Internet is generally known tothose skilled in the art and, as such, need not be detailed herein. See,for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY,MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997)and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002),the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components described herein may be independently,separately or collectively coupled to the network 106 via one or moredata links including, for example, a connection to an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) over a local loop as is typically used in connection withstandard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that the network 104 maybe implemented variously. For example, network 104 may be implemented asan interactive television (ITV) network. The systems and methodsdisclosed herein contemplate the use, sale and/or distribution of anygoods, services or information over any network having functionalitysimilar to that described above with reference to network 104.

A wallet platform may comprise any type of hardware and/or software(e.g., a computer server, mobile device computer based system, orcomputer server system) configured or configurable to provide and/ortransmit information associated with a transaction account (such as asmart token).

An electronic acquisition system may comprise any type of hardwareand/or software (e.g., a computer server or computer server system)configured or configurable to approve and/or decline an application forcredit and/or provide and/or transmit information associated with atransaction account (such as a smart token).

A virtual vault may be created to store the relationship between anissued token and an associated funding account and/or or PAN. Notably,the merchant does not have access to the true account number and/or orPAN. In this way, if the merchant system is compromised, a transactionaccount processor may know that a fraudulent transaction is occurring.For instance, a cryptogram associated with the token may include a setof transaction details. These transaction details may include domainrestrictions. Domain restrictions may be any desired domainrestrictions. These restrictions may include a restrictions related towhich merchant is involved or restrictions associated with an industrycode associated with the merchant. Domain restrictions may be associatedwith a physical transaction instrument transaction or an electronic onlytransaction.

The merchant may be notified of the breach. The issuer may be notifiedthat the token is going to be cancelled and that the associatedtransaction with the compromised token should be rejected, but the cardmember experience is not affected.

Tokens may be one time use tokens. A one-time use token may be issuedfor use with a transaction at a merchant. Tokens may also be statictokens, wherein static as referred to herein may indicate that the tokenmay be available for more than one use.

According to various embodiments, use of the smart token system mayenable the liability for fraud to be shifted from the merchant to theissuer of the PAN.

According to various embodiments, a plurality of different methods ofauthentication associated with the smart token system may exist. Forexample, a first method of authentication may be a challenge with aone-time code. For instance, a one-time code is delivered to a user,(e.g., through a SMS on a mobile device) and the code can be enteredinto a field by a user. A one-time code may be delivered to a user viaan email. A second method of authentication is 3-D Secure or theAmerican Express™ implementation of SafeKey™. 3-D Secure is an XML-basedprotocol designed to be an additional security layer for online creditand debit card transactions. 3-D Secure adds an authentication step foronline payments.

SafeKey™ is a method and system where a transaction processor contactsthe issuer with transaction details. The transaction issuer reviews thedetails of the transaction and approves that the transaction details arewithin acceptable bounds for the user. A third method of authenticationis an Issuer Authentication API. The transaction details may be morerobust than the details communicated in the second method associate withthe SafeKey™ system. For instance, the transaction details may includebuyer browser information, buyer IP address, buyer electronic devicehardware information, buyer billing address, buyer transactioninstrument card information, buyer shipping information and/or the like.In this way, more information is passed to the decisioning entity (e.g.,the issuer) to make a determination on the authorization of thetransaction to proceed and/or to potentially allow for fraud liabilityshift (from the merchant to the Issuer). The transaction details maythen be compared against pre-stored metrics, to determine a likelihoodof fraudulent activity. In this way, the decisioning entity may make amuch more informed decision.

According to various embodiments, an individual token is presentedand/or transmitted to a merchant for use in a single payment transactionbased on the type of authentication utilized by the merchant for atransaction. In this way, a decision engine (e.g., a device and/orsoftware system interposed in-between the transaction account holder andthe merchant) is configured to make a decision on which token to issuebased on known details associated with a merchant, the transactionaccount holder and/or transaction environment.

According to various embodiments, an individual token is issued to themerchant based on the type of authentication method utilized by thetransaction account holder for a transaction. For instance, theauthentication method utilized by the transaction account holder may bea finger print, a biometric, a retinal scan and/or the like.

According to various embodiments, upon issuance of a token, additionalinformation is associated the token in the virtual vault. “Virtualvault” as used herein may refer to a secure database. For instance, thisinformation may include the type of authentication utilized by themerchant for transactions. This information may include the type ofauthentication method utilized by the transaction account holder.

During token and PAN provisioning, instead of just having one token perone PAN for a single use case PAN, between 1 and N tokens per a singlePAN are provisioned. During provisioning, a decision engine will supplyadditional details that are applied to each token. This additionalinformation may be stored in a token virtual vault that houses themapping between the PAN and token. Then, during a transaction, thedecision engine chooses which token to give to the merchant to processbusiness as usual. When the token comes into the network, additionalinformation associated with that individual token may be identified.This information may be conveyed to a transaction account issuer insubstantially real time on and/or appended to the transactional message.

A digital wallet, and/or e-wallet, may refer to an electronic devicethat allows an individual to make electronic commerce transactions. Thiscan include purchasing items on-line with a computer or using asmartphone to purchase something at a store. Increasingly, digitalwallets are being made not just for basic financial transactions but toalso authenticate the holder's credentials. For example, adigital-wallet could potentially verify the age of the buyer to thestore while purchasing alcohol. It is useful to approach the term“digital wallet” not as a singular technology, but as three major parts:the system (the electronic infrastructure), the application (thesoftware that operates on top) and the device (the individual portion).

An individual's bank account can also be linked to the digital wallet.The individual may also have their driver's license, health card,loyalty card(s), credit account, charge account, debit account, andother ID documents stored on the phone. The credentials can be passed toa merchant's terminal wirelessly via near field communication (NFC).Certain sources are speculating that these smartphone “digital wallets”will eventually replace physical wallets.

A digital wallet has both a software and information component. Thesoftware provides security and encryption for the personal informationand for the actual transaction. Typically, digital wallets are stored onthe client side and are easily self-maintained and fully compatible withmost e-commerce Web sites. A server-side digital wallet, also known as athin wallet, is one that an organization creates for and about you andmaintains on its servers. Server-side digital wallets are gainingpopularity among major retailers due to the security, efficiency, andadded utility it provides to the end-user, which increases theirsatisfaction of their overall purchase. The information component isbasically a database of user-inputted information. This informationconsists of your shipping address, billing address, payment methods(including credit card numbers, expiry dates, and security numbers), andother information.

Digital wallets are generally composed of both digital wallet devicesand digital wallet systems. Digital wallet systems enable the widespreaduse of digital wallet transactions among various retail vendors in theform of mobile payments systems and digital wallet applications.According to various embodiments, in operation, an e-wallet uponregistration, may contact a transaction account processor and/or keeperof the virtual vault to add a transaction instrument and associate thePAN to the e-wallet. The virtual vault may issue a variety of tokens tobe utilized by the e-wallet, such as a distinct token to be utilizedbased on the method of authentication utilized by the merchant for atransaction. The e-wallet itself may store the issued tokens andtransmit them as appropriate during a transaction. This process may bereferred to as the provisioning process. In this way, a token isprovisioned and the relationship to the funding account (e.g., the PAN)is established. As stated above, the relationship between the PAN andthe token may be stored in the vault.

Later, upon receipt of the token associated with a transaction request,additional information may be known about the authentication processbased on the token utilized.

In this way, N number of tokens may be assigned based on additional dataassociated with the use of the token. Stated another way, the logicengine may request information or request a token, and supply specificinformation to be provided at a later time, such as during atransaction. The merchant may be provided with the correct token thatrepresents the desired information. N number of tokens may be associatedto one PAN at a single device, such as an e-wallet, for concurrent use.

According to various embodiments and with reference to FIG. 1, the tokenprovisioning process is described. In response to a provisioning processbeing enacted (Step 1), a token requestor, such as an e-wallet (e.g.,Amex Express Checkout™), requests a token from a virtual vault on behalfof the merchant or on behalf of the transaction account holder (e.g.,card member) (Step 2). The token requestor verifies that permissionsexist to add the transaction instrument to the e-wallet (Step 3). Uponapproval, the e-wallet system requests tokens associated with thetransaction account associated with the transaction instrument (e.g.,PAN) from the token virtual vault (Step 4). The virtual vault could be athird-party vault. The virtual vault may issue a variety of tokens tothe e-wallet system based on a variety of factors associated with thesingle transaction instrument (Step 5). For instance, a token associatedwith a one-time code authentication method, a token associated with 3-DSecure, and a token associated with Issuer Authentication API isgenerated. These tokens and associated information may be stored in thevirtual vault and delivered to the e-wallet system. The e-wallet systemmay store the tokens.

According to various embodiments and with reference to FIG. 2, inresponse to a transaction instrument holder securely logging into thee-wallet, an authentication process may occur and be associated with atransaction (Step 10). For instance, an American Express card may beselected by a user within the e-wallet. A traditionally used pre-storedshipping address may be selected. The e-wallet may run its normalprocesses to authenticate the transaction account holder. Thetransaction account issuer may determine, based on its capabilities, themethod of authentication preferred with the transaction. The preferredmethod of authentication may be enacted. The transaction account issuermay receive the transaction details and the enhanced transactiondetails. The transaction account issuer may evaluate the transactiondetails and the enhanced transaction details. The transaction accountissuer may approve the transaction. At this point, the e-wallet knowsthat the transaction instrument holder has successfully beenauthenticated via the preferred method of authentication. The e-walletmay electronically deliver to the merchant an appropriate smart token,based on the preferred method of authentication utilized, for use in theformal request for authorization and settlement (Step 20). The merchantmay then submit its authorization request including the smart token(Step 30). On the backend, a request is made to the virtual vault toassociate the smart token received with a stored smart token (Step 40).From this association, a PAN may be retrieved. The network may alsoidentify the transaction as having a token and enact a token rulesprocess. The issuer may make a decision to authorize or settle thetransaction (Step 50). The network may respond to the merchant (Step60). The merchant may display the transaction authorization result tothe transaction instrument holder (Step 70).

At a future time, an audit may be performed where the type ofauthentication utilized in a transaction may be known solely frominspection of the token and virtual vault records. This method does notentail merchant system reconfiguration.

According to various embodiments, an individual dynamic token isrequested and the information is associated on a one-time use casebasis.

In various embodiments, the web-client may include and/or acquire (e.g.,download as an application from an application provider) an application(e.g., software) that enables the web-client to acquire and/or readand/or decode the encoded secure token. If any portion of theapplication needed to acquire and/or decode the encoded secure token isnot present on the web-client, the web-client may prompt the consumer todownload, from an application provider (e.g., from the wallet platform)a software application suitable for such a purpose. Therefore, theapplication residing on the web-client may, as described herein, decode(as described herein or as is known in the art) the encoded dataacquired from the web-client to retrieve the secure token.

In response to validating the secure token, the wallet platform mayprovide (encoded or decoded and/or encrypted and/or unencrypted)transaction account data (e.g., a transaction account number, anexpiration date, a customer name, and the like) to the mobilecommunications device/web-client via the network and/or via atelecommunications network provided by a telecommunications provider.The transaction account data may be associated with the transactionaccount that was requested and approved “instantly” by the electronicacquisitions system (as described above). The mobile communicationsdevice/web-client may store the data, in response to receipt of thetransaction account data.

In the detailed description herein, references to “one embodiment”, “anembodiment”, “an example embodiment”, “various embodiments”, etc.,indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described. After reading the description, itwill be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implementthe disclosure in certain embodiments.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the particular machines, andthose hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination, as would beappreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further, as isunambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000, XP, Vista, OS2, UNIX, Linux,Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support softwareand drivers typically associated with computers. A user may include anyindividual, business, entity, government organization, software and/orhardware that interact with a system.

In an embodiment, various components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern the operations ofvarious operating systems and hardware resources. For example, where amicro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other than themobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leverage thecommunication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available (e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems).

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, andthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphere MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and thelike.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, whichmay carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and the like. Still further, the system could be used to detector prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language, suchas JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

As used herein, the term “end user”, “consumer”, “customer”, “cardmember”, “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably with eachother, and each shall mean any person, entity, machine, hardware,software or business. A bank may be part of the system, but the bank mayrepresent other types of card issuing institutions, such as credit cardcompanies, card sponsoring companies, or third party issuers undercontract with financial institutions. It is further noted that otherparticipants may be involved in some phases of the transaction, such asan intermediary settlement institution, but these participants are notshown.

Each participant is equipped with a computing device in order tointeract with the system and facilitate online commerce transactions.The customer has a computing unit in the form of a personal computer,although other types of computing units may be used including laptops,notebooks, hand held computers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones,touch-tone telephones and the like. The merchant has a computing unitimplemented in the form of a computer-server, although otherimplementations are contemplated by the system. The bank has a computingcenter shown as a main frame computer. However, the bank computingcenter may be implemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PCserver, a network of computers located in the same of differentgeographic locations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

The merchant computer and the bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

The electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem is implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer does not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, upgraded software, a stand-alone system, a distributed system,a method, a data processing system, a device for data processing, and/ora computer program product. Accordingly, the system may take the form ofan entirely software embodiment, an entirely hardware embodiment, or anembodiment combining aspects of both software and hardware. Furthermore,the system may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program codemeans embodied in the storage medium. Any suitable computer-readablestorage medium may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROM, opticalstorage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the inventionshave been described as a method in certain embodiments, it iscontemplated that it may be embodied as computer program instructions ona tangible computer-readable carrier, such as a magnetic or opticalmemory or a magnetic or optical disk. All structural, chemical, andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the above-described exemplaryembodiments that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art areexpressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to beencompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for adevice or method to address each and every problem sought to be solvedby the present disclosure, for it to be encompassed by the presentclaims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in thepresent disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardlessof whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recitedin the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under theprovisions of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the element is expressly recitedusing the phrase “means for.” As used herein, the terms “comprises”,“comprising”, or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover anon-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only thoseelements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherentto such process, method, article, or apparatus.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by acomputer-based system configured for processing token information, aselection of a transaction account code; provisioning, by thecomputer-based system, a plurality of tokens per received transactionaccount code, wherein each token of the plurality of token is associatedin a virtual vault according to a method of authentication to be usedwith the token; and transmitting, by the computer-based system, theplurality of tokens to an e-wallet application.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising encoding, by the computer-based system, theplurality of tokens.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method ofauthentication includes at least one of a one-time code, a 3-D Securesystem, or an issuer authentication API.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the method of authentication includes at least one of a fingerprint, a biometric, or a retinal scan.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising processing, by the computer-based system, a transactionincluding the token.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingshifting liability for fraud from a merchant to an issuer based on useof the method.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the e-wallet stores theplurality of tokens for use based on the method of authenticationavailable for a transaction.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein themethod of authentication utilized in a transaction may be known frominspection of at least one the token or virtual vault records.
 9. Asystem comprising: a processor configured for processing tokeninformation; a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicatewith the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory havinginstructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by theprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:receiving, by the processor, a selection of a transaction account code;provisioning, by the processor, a plurality of tokens per receivedtransaction account code, wherein each token of the plurality of tokenis associated in a virtual vault according to a method of authenticationto be used with the token; and transmitting, by the processor, theplurality of tokens to an e-wallet application.
 10. The system of claim9, further comprising encoding, by the processor, the plurality oftokens.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the method of authenticationincludes at least one of a one-time code, a 3-D Secure system, or anIssuer Authentication API.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the methodof authentication includes at least one of a finger print, a biometric,or a retinal scan.
 13. The system of claim 9, further comprisingprocessing, by the processor, a transaction including the token.
 14. Thesystem of claim 9, further comprising shifting liability for fraud froma merchant to an issuer based on use of the system.
 15. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the e-wallet stores the plurality of tokens for usebased on the method of authentication available for a transaction. 16.An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, inresponse to execution by a computer-based system configured forprocessing token information, cause the computer-based system to performoperations comprising: receiving, by the computer-based system, aselection of a transaction account code; provisioning, by thecomputer-based system, a plurality of tokens per received transactionaccount code, wherein each token of the plurality of token is associatedin a virtual vault according to a method of authentication to be usedwith the token; and transmitting, by the computer-based system, theplurality of tokens to an e-wallet application.
 17. The article ofmanufacture of claim 16, further comprising encoding, by thecomputer-based system, the plurality of tokens.
 18. The article ofmanufacture of claim 16, wherein the method of authentication includesat least one of a one-time code, a 3-D Secure system, or an issuerauthentication API.
 19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, whereinthe method of authentication includes at least one of a finger print, abiometric, or a retinal scan.
 20. The article of manufacture of claim16, wherein the method of authentication utilized in a transaction maybe known from inspection of at least one the token or virtual vaultrecords.